Monday, April 30, 2007

What's a knitter to do?

Picture it. A beautiful Oregon weekend. A lovely house at the beach reserved for you and six of your good friends. A bag of knitting, some wine, a few movies on DVD, and lots of chocolate. Does this sound like your idea of heaven? (Did I mention the chocolate?)

Well, that's how I spent Friday and Saturday. The only problem was, when I got this far on my Classy Slip-Up sock, I realized that I had only copied and brought with me, two-thirds of the pattern! ACK! Now, I know enough about sock construction that I probably could have winged it and finished anyway, but I haven't made this particular pattern before, so I didn't want to mess it up.

As a good travel knitter, of course I had brought a second project with me, so I worked on the Boobalicious Tank for a while. CAUTION: Should you ever be in a position to be knitting and talking and eating chocolate and watching movies and drinking wine (all at the same time of course), don't work on seed stitch.

I was several rows past it before I saw the error of my ways. ACK again! Now the dilemma is: Should I rip or call it a "design element" and move on? Given that this yarn (Dale of Norway Svale) is not the most reslient stuff I've worked with -- it snags and splits at the slightest provocation -- I've decided to just ignore the mistake and move on. It's just a tank top, it's not a gift, I can live with it. I hope.

Anyway, my desire to knit socks over the weekend would not be quelled. So, on Saturday morning after we had breakfast at our favorite place (The Lazy Susan in Cannon Beach -- the one in back, not the one on the main street), I headed to Coastal Yarns to see if they had a copy of the book. I figured I could quickly jot down the highlights of the rest of the pattern and all would be well. I planned to keep my blinders on and just look for the book, copy the pattern, and leave. After all, I have a lot of yarn from the Shop Hop last weekend and really didn't need to buy anymore, right? RIGHT????? Help me out here, would ya???

Yeah, you know the rest of the story. I knew I was in trouble when I got to the store and in the window were brightly colored stickers proclaiming, "In stock now! SOCKS THAT ROCK!!" Yep, it was over before I walked through the door.

I did manage to ask if they had the book I needed and I think I listened when they said they had sold out before I made a beeline for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts section of the store, but I'm not sure. I controlled my self (sort of) and only purchased three skeins of STR lightweight, one already wound into a cake, along with two sets of DPNS (I left my quiver of DPNs at home, of course). Then I found a sunny bench beneath a flowering tree that was literally raining pretty pink petals every time the breeze blew by and cast on for a new pair of socks.

By the time my friends arrived from their shopping/browsing of other stores, I had a good start on the cuff of a sock. By Saturday night, I had turned the heel and was working on the gusset before I made myself put it down and go to bed (I had to leave early Sunday morning to get back to Portland and go deal cards at a fundraiser for most of the day). BTW, the color is Tide Pool. I love how it snakes around, sometimes pooling, sometimes striping. Unpredictable, just like a tide pool should be. It's just a basic sock, nothing fancy. STR is truly a joy to knit!

Oh, when we got back to the house after the Cannon Beach breakfast and yarn fest, we did go for a walk. For me to get motivated to do that, though, there was another yarn shop, Creative Beginnings (620 S. Holladay @ Avenue G, Seaside), as a goal. They carry yarn, scrapbooking, and beading supplies (and also has an espresso bar). I picked up a couple of skeins of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca in a lovely teal color. These will be paired with two skeins of cream I already have to make something wonderful. I'm thinking a mosaic patterned scarf, but time will tell. I also grabbed a skein of Sockotta because, as you all know, you can never have enough sock yarn! Oh, yes, I did ask if they had the sock book, but they didn't. :)

Hope your weekend was as enjoyable as mine!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hehehe, you are hilarious! I am glad you were able to find lots of yarn :). You see, it was meant to be because if you had taken your entire patttern, you wouldn't have gone to the store, which means no STR and no pretty sock :)

Emma said...

Sounds like a great weekend. You are so! lucky! you have a local place that stocks STR. That would be awesome--although definitely dangerous.

Carrie said...

The STR socks are coming out great--the colors are beautiful! I forgot not one but TWO patterns during a trip not too long ago, so I've been super careful on more recent trips, in case LYSs weren't conveniently located!

Thanks for your comment about my pattern choices. I'm sure that I'll come up with something, its just so fun considering all of the possibilities!